As the story goes, the decadent shogun, Tsunayoshi, bartered his soul to a mad priest, for a potion that could allow him to avoid his impeding death. As a result, he became the Dark Warlord, turned his loyal followers into undead, and declared war on the four lords governing the lands around his mountain stronghold.

The player starts the game as the leader of the armies of one of the four lords, tasked to rally the samurai scattered in the castle, drive out the invaders, and bring home the people who were driven away from their home. After this is done, the seven samurai are sent to undertake a series of tasks, as part of their mission to clear the wilderness from Zanshin's forces. These include requesting assistance from the second clan, conquering the third clan who defected to Zanshin's side, rescuing the lord of the fourth clan, recapturing the eight portal gates scattered around the wilderness, and finally, conquering the Dark Warlord's citadel.

The game map is divided into several major regions including the four castles and their respective territories arranged in a ring, with a path in each one leading up to one of the four mountain slopes, that lead to the Meifumado citadel. Whichever clan the player chooses to serve, he must travel through the wilderness clockwise, and clear all eight areas before climbing the mountain. Depending on which clan the player chooses, he may encounter side quests that provide some backstory and development for certain characters.

During the game, the player can command up to four of the seven characters. Injured or fallen samurai can be teleported back into the player's shrine room, and fresh troops can be called instantly to the field, as long as there's at least one character in the active party. If all characters in the active party are defeated, the game ends, even if all other characters are fully rested and waiting deployment in the Shrine room. The active party itself can return to the Shrine room either by foot, or through the portal gates found in the wilderness. Besides the shrine room, there is no town for the player to rest in and buy equipment. Once found, the blacksmith and the priest can always be accessed through their respective menus. The blacksmith will make you new equipment out of low quality items you give him, or use special 'components' you find to improve the capabilities of your equipment. The priest will give you spell points in exchange for high quality items, sell you potions as well as identify items and remove curses. You can NOT sell any items.

The game is very similar to Diablo and it's sequel, but carries several distinctive features, including a complex item creation system, and the commanding of four member teams, alongside the far eastern atmosphere.

Tropes used in Throne of Darkness include:

Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Item crafting costs a lot of money. Ridiculously so. Made worse by the fact that you cannot sell items for cash (just give them away for materials or spell points) and must rely exclusively on the gold that you find.

Alternate Reality: The characters are named after historical or mythical Japanese figures, but the story isn't even close to anything that happened in historical Japan.

And Then John Was a Zombie: Things don't end very well four our heroes after witnessing the ascension of the new Zanshin, who proceeds to erase their minds and turn them into mindless servants.

BFS: The Zanbato and Nagamaki, which are polearm class weapons. The patch also includes the Chiljido, as the strongest melee weapon in the game.

Historical Domain Character: Almost every playable character and lord. But considering the HUGE difference between their roles in the story and their roles in history, they may as well be different people who happen to have the same name.

Historical In-Joke: If you serve the Tokugawa Clan, your leader is called Date Masamune. If you serve the Mori clan (who must defeat the Tokugawa at one point) your leader is called Takeda Shingen, who did indeed defeat Tokugawa at one point.

Inexplicable Treasure Chest: Pray that they contains gold and not some more useless items. It's one of the only three ways to get money in the game.

Item Crafting: half of the items you find are 'components' ranging from gemstones to animal parts. The blacksmith can use them to improve your gear. The best equipment can only be created using this method. It's best to combine this with the occasional unique items the player finds for maximum effect.

Money for Nothing: Completely averted. The amount of money you acquire throughout the game is just enough to craft decent equipment for every character, for the decisive battle.

Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking barrels and (while in caves) various formations, or raiding some poor slob's stash is your only hope of finding more gold, if there are no more enemies left in the vicinity.

Shout-Out: To The Seven Samurai. Even the character portraits are designed to look like the actors. The Koga Clan sidequest, is a reference to Ninja Scroll. One of their leaders is called Kagero and the door to their hideout is opened using an item called 'Ninja Scroll'.

Too Awesome to Use: Item Crafting. You could easily find yourself piling up all those components and collecting several thousand gold pieces of gold waiting for awesome unique items like the Sarutobi, The Ryushi, The Yuzan or the Hwa-Rang Chiljido to drop, so you can improve those and make the ultimate gear. Immagine the pain of wasting all the best components and combinations on an ordinary bow and suddenly finding the Ryushi just before the Boss Fight. Your chance of crafting the ultimate bow is lost forever.